Introduce a Fish to an Aquarium
So you have purchased your beautiful tropical fish. It has been netted, bagged, and is ready for introduction into your cycled aquarium. Now you just throw it into your tank, right? Wrong. You must follow these careful steps to make sure your fish adapts well to it's new aquarium.
Contents
Steps
- Turn off the aquarium lights before doing the steps below.
- First, open the plastic bag in which the fish is contained, but it is often sealed tightly with many elastic bands. If so, save yourself the hassle and just cut them off.
- Next, float the open-topped bag in the aquarium for 5-10 minutes to allow the temperatures to adjust. Make sure it doesn't topple over.
- Now, use a clean (free of soap, etc...) cup to scoop some aquarium water into the bag. Repeat this step every five minutes over the span of half an hour until the bag is mostly aquarium water.
- The last step is to use a net to gently scoop the fish into the aquarium. This prevents contamination from the dealer’s tank into your aquarium. IMPORTANT: If the fish in the bag seem stressed you should just allow the bag to sink underwater and let the fish swim out, as netting can cause excess stress.
- Sit back and enjoy your new fish, but you may want to leave the lights off for the first day if you have a nervous species.
Tips
- If you don't want to net the fish, consider emptying as much bag-water as you can into a bucket or sink with the drain closed, before putting fish into your tank. The goal here is to put as little pet-shop water into your tank as possible.
- It's also possible to adapt the fish without floating the bag. If you have a container about the same size as the bag, you can set the bag in the container and drip tank water into the bag using a spare air hose to siphon the water. Use a paperclip to control the flow of water.
- Make sure all the fish left the bag before throwing the bag away.
Warnings
- Any new fish should ALWAYS be placed in a quarantine tank before being added to the main display.
